


artist

by orphan_account



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 乐华七子NEXT | NEX7, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character Death, Drabble, Light Angst, M/M, chengcheng and justin are the same age, hm xmas is over now we have post-xmas angst, there really isnt much angst i guess its real light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 19:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17168147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: chengcheng loves seeing justin draw, so justin draws a star for him every single day.even if chengcheng is not there to watch him draw.





	artist

the wind almost blows the black beret off his head, and that elicits a groan from the owner of the head accessory. justin puts down his brush and his hands go up to adjust the beret, securing all the hairpins and making sure it is sitting safely on his head before he continues with the artwork in front of him. 

no, justin is not an art student, but instead, a business student at xinyue university. he would have actually taken up art at school if not for his parents, who had insisted on him being a business student so that he would be able to manage all of that family business bullshit in the future. fortunately, justin actually enjoys business enough to not skip lectures and fail examinations on purpose. but art still remains as one of his favourite things in the world, and that is why the young student is out in the early morning, painting the scenery in front of him.

the water continues flowing smoothly as justin adds a few more colours to the work, making it much more vibrant than just a few minutes ago. this place, which justin honestly had zero idea what it was called but he referred to it as  _the bridge near the café that i always go to,_ was one of justin's favourite places. you could not call it as a busy street because the crowds were all located in front, where all the retail shops and night food markets were. the café sat near the end of the street, just a few steps away from the wooden bridge. every day, justin would grab the same caramel frappé from the café then cross the wooden bridge to get to the bus stop, but that was only on school days.

on non-school days like this one, justin would similarly purchase that caramel frappé then sit on one of the wooden benches outside, looking at the scenery, pondering all by himself before realising the coffee in his hands has been finished. it would either advance into justin snapping some shots of the picturesque view in front of him (only if he did not bring all of his art mediums) or him painting the scenery, just like now. 

most people would say that the water, the trees and everything else looks the same every single day, claiming that it was getting boring to look at. but for justin, he would find something new and beautiful everyday, and the irresistible pulchritude of it would make him stare at it for hours.

and just like always, he found something new today.

but it was not things like the tree changing colours, not things like the originally red bench turned into half green and half red because some high school student had decided to vandalise public property, not things like an airplane toy of a six-year-old kid stuck high up in the tree, and his older brother is getting it for him, prone to falling down and hurting that knee of his. 

today, it was this guy.

just minutes after adding colours, justin hears the sound of a camera clicking from behind. he turns around so fast that he almost gave himself whiplash, and he sees a guy just a few centimetres taller than him, long black coat adorning his tall figure, legs looking slim and never-ending in those black denim jeans that are ripped at a few places. the dslr is covering his face but he soon removes it, revealing his looks. 

to be honest, justin is awed by the guy's visuals. his features are sharp and his eyes are gentle & completely innocent, yet so deep like the ocean. and his lips? they are red, probably because the owner bit on them way too often, but they look so soft and kissable that justin wants to just close the distance between them and kiss that guy. but then the sound of camera clicking appears in his mind and he snaps back to reality, putting on a slight frown.

"were you taking a photograph of my work?"

"did you expect me to be taking a photograph of your back? of course i was snapping some photos of your artwork, what else?" the guy replies, tone ever so slightly unfriendly and cold which makes justin want to whine and pout, just because the cute guy is being  _mean_ to him. 

the student only puts his hand out in a demanding manner, looking like he is asking money from the guy but no, he wants the camera. without hesitating, the taller removes the dslr from himself and puts it on justin's hand, watching the other take a good look at the photos, pressing the back and front buttons repeatedly. justin only looks up after a good two minutes of judging the photographs and the skill of the guy, curiosity evident in his eyes. 

"did you really take a photo of your soulmate mark when you didn't even find your soulmate yet? or maybe you're just too dumb to realise that a white mark means that your other half hasn't appeared?" justin asks, looking at the photo where half a wrist and half a white star is shown. 

in this universe, everyone had a soulmate and a mark. each mark was specially designed for a pair of soulmates, which remained white on their wrists until they found each other. when they finally meet one another, the white would turn into black. it sounds all nice and fantasy-like, but the bad thing was that they had to wait for a good twelve hours for the mark to turn into black.

why? in this whole soulmate process, one person of the pair would have the mark on their left wrist and the other, on the right. there were many myths and articles containing explanations and guesses on it, but there was no correct explanation yet. the person with the mark on the left would go into unconsciousness for a whole twelve hours, resulting in the other half of the pair having to take care of them. meanwhile, the white marks would slowly turn black and when the other finally wakes up, the marks would already be black. 

and of course, the soulmates will live happily ever after.

the guy takes the dslr from him and starts talking about how justin should not have browsed through the other photographs in his camera, and the business student wants to argue back, saying that he was trying to see if there were any other shots of his artwork but he only feels his head hurting badly, the voice of the taller guy slowly turning into nothing. his legs are getting weaker by each second and black is slowly engulfing his vision from the corner. justin can hear the other shouting and asking him if he is okay, but he has zero strength to reply so he only leans on the taller, closing his eyes and falling into an unconscious state.

* * *

 

when justin wakes up, he is met with the sight of his own room. sweat is slowly dripping down, flowing down the sides of his face, yet justin feels cold inside. sun is shining into the room but the curtains are blocking it, darkening the room. the young student only sits up slowly, taking in a deep breath, letting the white soft blankets cover his lower half.

silence and breathing are the only things that engulf the room, and justin lets himself stare into space for a few minutes before whipping his head to look at the huge framed painting of a star, with the letter "n" written over it in calligraphy. there are two signatures sitting comfortably at the corner of the paper, one of it belonging to him, and the other one belonging to..

fan chengcheng.

justin remembers how chengcheng disturbed him for a whole three days to paint their soulmate mark and then frame it in their shared bedroom, using all sorts of ways to get the business student to do it. of course, a promise of a month's supply of jelly and crackers along with unlimited kisses did the work and chengcheng hugged him from the back tightly, hot breath tickling the little artist's neck as justin worked on it. they put their signatures at the bottom right corner, with a little heart located in the space between the two signatures.

beside the star painting is the artwork of that scenery near the café, the one that justin was working on when they first met. justin even went the extra mile to write out what happened on the day they met, pasting it right beside the artwork so that they could forever remember it. there were a few more artworks up on the walls too, some silly ones belonging to chengcheng (basically, he had drew it for fun). justin would have never gave his consent to have those works up there, but chengcheng said that they shared their bedroom, so he had the right to put his own painting up.

letting his eyes travel, justin ends up looking at his empty left wrist, the star no longer there anymore. there were no traces of it, just a clean wrist in his eyes. honestly, he hated not seeing that star sitting on his wrist, the black colour standing out against his pale skin. 

a month ago, a drunk driver had crashed into chengcheng's car while chengcheng was making his way back home, and unfortunately, chengcheng had to be the one who left. at that time, justin was still texting chengcheng, asking where he was and if he was okay until a call came and he wanted to speak first, but another guy's voice interrupted him and told him about everything that just happened. the young student ran as fast as his legs could take him, tears threatening to escape but he held it in, all the way until he reached the site and saw everything. the overturned cars, the blood that was still flowing, the bystanders being slightly scared and worried. 

but the only thing he saw, was chengcheng, lying on the ground, unconscious. blood was flowing from his head, and the hard surface of the road had gifted him several wounds on that pale skin of his. the star on his right wrist was covered by blood, and could hardly be seen. justin remembers how he had just knelt down then, the big droplets of tears finally flowing down from his face, dripping down into the puddle of blood, mixing the red liquid. 

and from then, the star had slowly vanished, turning from black to white, then slowly escaped from his wrist. as if the star hated him, wanted to run away and never be with him again. 

when one half of a soulmate pair died, the soulmate marks would slowly disappear, leaving the other half with an empty wrist. it made the other half feel empty inside too, just like a part of them was gone for the rest of their lives. they would never see the mark on their wrist again, and of course, their soulmate.

so justin takes the pen sitting on the bedside table, laying his left wrist down and drawing the star on his skin, writing the letter in calligraphy. he smiles a little and caps the pen, putting it back. if the star refused to come back to him, the least he could do is draw it by himself. 

the business student shakes his head, trying to get the pain from the dream out. it may be a happy memory, their first ever meeting, but seeing chengcheng in his dream still hurts him. in the past month, justin had tried his best to not think too much and focus on schoolwork, thinking about how he has to run the family business in the future. and just to avoid all of the pain, the café had one less usual customer, and the bridge had started to miss the young boy who would visit it everyday.

his alarm starts to rings at six and the voice of chengcheng fills up the entire room, 

"you're my favourite artist, justin! i love you!"

some people do not understand why justin draws a star on his wrist everyday, because they have no idea what happened.

but justin guesses this voice recording of chengcheng is why he promises himself and chengcheng to keep drawing and keep doing new artworks when he has free time.

to draw and keep that star mark on his wrist, even if it is drawn by him, and not a real one.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it! do leave any comments!


End file.
